Stephen Kandel from an interview about The Magician television series.
Another in an occasional series about unsung figures of television.
Stephen Kandel, now 89, was the kind of television who could take on multiple genres and do it well.
Science fiction? He wrote the two Star Trek episodes featuring Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel), one of Captain Kirk’s more unusual adversaries.
Espionage? His list of credits included I Spy, The Wild Wild West, Mission: Impossible, It Takes a Thief and A Man Called Sloane.
Crime dramas? Hawaii Five-O and Mannix, among too many to list here. His work included a Cannon-Barnaby Jones crossover, The Deadly Conspiracy, a 1975 two-part story airing as an episode of each series.
Not to mention the occasional Western, drama, super hero series (Batman and Wonder Woman) and some shows that don’t easily fit categories (The Magician, MacGyver).
Writer Harlan Ellison in 1970 referred to Kandel as “one of the more lunatic scriveners in Clown Town.” In a column reprinted in The Other Glass Teat, Ellison wrote that Kandel was assigned to write an episode of a drama called The Young Lawyers that was to introduce a new WASP character.
According to Ellison, ABC opted to tone down socially conscious stories among other changes. Kandel wasn’t a fan of the changes. He initially named the new WASP character “Christian White.”
“It went through three drafts before anyone got hip to Steve’s sword in the spleen,” Ellison wrote.
Other in-joke humor by Kandel that did make it to television screens.
One was a 1973 episode of Mannix, Sing a Song of Murder. Kandel named a hit man Anthony Spinner. Kandel had earlier worked for Spinner on the QM series Dan August.
Presumably Spinner didn’t mind. Kandel ended up working for Spinner on Cannon.
Another bit was Kandel’s script for A Man Called Sloane episode titled The Seduction Squad. Robert Culp played a Blofeld-like criminal, except he carried around a small dog instead of a cat.
Kandel wrapped up his television career with MacGyver. Today, somewhere in the world, there may be an episode of some series written by Kandel being shown.
Filed under: The Other Spies | Tagged: A Man Called Sloane, Harlan Ellison, Hawaii Five-O, I Spy, It Takes a Thief, Mannix, Robert Culp, Roger C. Carmel, Star Trek, Stephen Kandel, The Wild Wild West, unsung figures of television |
The Spy Command 
Great piece! I was a big fan of Stephen Kandel’s work when I was a kid…along with Stephen J. Cannell and Glen A. Larson. Amazingly versatile and prolific.
[…] Hawaii Five-O episodes with tracked music when the budget didn’t permit an original score. The Stephen Kandel-scripted episode is a great example of the Jules Verne vibe that echoed through out the 1965-69 […]
Given that “Star Trek: The Animated Series” is now canon, he actually wrote three episodes since “Mudd’s Passion” now counts.
Quinn Martin liked Kandel’s work and wanted to hire him. He asked Kandel what title he should give him. Kandel quipped, “Utility infielder?”. Martin was not amused.